Ponary Diary, 1941-1943

A Bystander's Account of a Mass Murder

Nonfiction, History
Cover of the book Ponary Diary, 1941-1943 by Kazimierz Sakowicz, Yale University Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Kazimierz Sakowicz ISBN: 9780300129175
Publisher: Yale University Press Publication: October 1, 2008
Imprint: Yale University Press Language: English
Author: Kazimierz Sakowicz
ISBN: 9780300129175
Publisher: Yale University Press
Publication: October 1, 2008
Imprint: Yale University Press
Language: English
About sixty thousand Jews from Wilno (Vilnius, Jewish Vilna) and surrounding townships in present-day Lithuania were murdered by the Nazis and their Lithuanian collaborators in huge pits on the outskirts of Ponary. Over a period of several years, Kazimierz Sakowicz, a Polish journalist who lived in the village of Ponary, was an eyewitness to the murder of these Jews as well as to the murders of thousands of non-Jews on an almost daily basis. He chronicled these events in a diary that he kept at great personal risk.

Written as a simple account of what Sakowicz witnessed, the diary is devoid of personal involvement or identification with the victims. It is thus a unique document: testimony from a bystander, an “objective” observer without an emotional or a political agenda, to the extermination of the Jews of the city known as “the Jerusalem of Lithuania.”

Sakowicz did not survive the war, but much of his diary did. Painstakingly pieced together by Rahel Margolis from scraps of paper hidden in various locations, the diary was published in Polish in 1999. It is here published in English for the first time, extensively annotated by Yitzhak Arad to guide readers through the events at Ponary.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
About sixty thousand Jews from Wilno (Vilnius, Jewish Vilna) and surrounding townships in present-day Lithuania were murdered by the Nazis and their Lithuanian collaborators in huge pits on the outskirts of Ponary. Over a period of several years, Kazimierz Sakowicz, a Polish journalist who lived in the village of Ponary, was an eyewitness to the murder of these Jews as well as to the murders of thousands of non-Jews on an almost daily basis. He chronicled these events in a diary that he kept at great personal risk.

Written as a simple account of what Sakowicz witnessed, the diary is devoid of personal involvement or identification with the victims. It is thus a unique document: testimony from a bystander, an “objective” observer without an emotional or a political agenda, to the extermination of the Jews of the city known as “the Jerusalem of Lithuania.”

Sakowicz did not survive the war, but much of his diary did. Painstakingly pieced together by Rahel Margolis from scraps of paper hidden in various locations, the diary was published in Polish in 1999. It is here published in English for the first time, extensively annotated by Yitzhak Arad to guide readers through the events at Ponary.

More books from Yale University Press

Cover of the book Dream in Shakespeare by Kazimierz Sakowicz
Cover of the book Money and Government by Kazimierz Sakowicz
Cover of the book Learning by Doing by Kazimierz Sakowicz
Cover of the book Northern Ireland by Kazimierz Sakowicz
Cover of the book Responsible Parties by Kazimierz Sakowicz
Cover of the book Music for Silenced Voices: Shostakovich and His Fifteen Quartets by Kazimierz Sakowicz
Cover of the book Russian Orientalism: Asia in the Russian Mind from Peter the Great to the Emigration by Kazimierz Sakowicz
Cover of the book Joe DiMaggio: The Long Vigil by Kazimierz Sakowicz
Cover of the book The Dance Claimed Me: A Biography of Pearl Primus by Kazimierz Sakowicz
Cover of the book Domestic Subjects by Kazimierz Sakowicz
Cover of the book Big World, Small Planet by Kazimierz Sakowicz
Cover of the book Restless Secularism by Kazimierz Sakowicz
Cover of the book Managing Labor Migration in the Twenty-First Century by Kazimierz Sakowicz
Cover of the book Plutocrats United by Kazimierz Sakowicz
Cover of the book Boyhoods by Kazimierz Sakowicz
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy